When will the Fremont Planners realize that bringing in chain stores for local shoppers is just the same as sending the shoppers out of town for their spending?

Profits from all sales go elsewhere, the money doesn’t stay and circulate here in town. All the merchandise is imported so manufacturing jobs for product aren’t created here for Americans. The retail jobs are not life supporting — people that pay Fremont rents can’t afford to work there, so workers there will be spending their earnings in Tracy or Gilroy.

Yes, the city does get something in sales taxes, but that’s eaten up by the actual services the city will have to provide, and which the residents will subsidize when there’s a business downturn.

Property taxes have probably been negotiatied away to ‘attract’ the major stakeholders.

Mainly the gasoline sellers will profit from the city’s siting of the new mall well away from major residential centers. North Fremont will still go to Union City.

If I were a mother of teenage kids, I’d be upset that they’d have to go so far to ‘hang out’ after school. Location of the parks out there is ridiculous as well. More gas, more carpooling, more demand on a bus line that already can’t accomodate the population in the city center.

I thought the city was going for more urbanization and infill and walkable neightborhoods??

Everything in life is complicated. Let a piece of property sit without a plan and the railroads might come by to build a diesel-pollution-belching nightmare. Build walkable in-fill with apartments above and possibly get empty store fronts below foreclosed condos. Despite practically giving the land away, the Centerville plot still remains empty.

Please put in some higher end stores. We don’t need any more Targets. Don’t turn this in to another generic strip mall. We need something like a Santa Row where people can get excited to go shop. We have plenty of Targets already.

Where would you like them? The old Henkel property? It’s far too hard to get to for major retail, and too small, too. Shall we develop the hillside? Destroy the old nursery? There are all sorts of legal, community, and financial hurdles to every option. In the end, most developments are not the city’s choice, they’re business decisions.

As for higher end stores, does Fremont’s population actually support them? I’m not so sure. If the market were here, we would already have seen more high-end stores.

From yesterdays San Jose Mercury News…
“We know they want a new ballpark and that the A’s would greatly benefit from it. We know they want it accompanied by retail/residential development. We know they have a strong preference for San Jose, though that possibility is shrinking by the hour.”

Fremont needs to at least try and get back it the mix! Bringing the A’s to Fremont is the ONLY way we are going to get the higher end stores & restaurants like they have at Santa Row. Reasonable people can only hope the F.C.N. has learned a lesson and will not be swift boating and flash mobbing this time around? It’s about time our city comes together, assimilates and plays ball!

Charlie C.
You are right, High end stores, nice restuarants, Just like Santana Row.
The proof, look at the area around the Oakland Colisium
or Overstock Stadium and of course the Oracle arena. Two major sport franchises.
Just google the area around the Overstock Stadium, Fremont could have had that. Yes Charlie C, There is plenty of Proof.

my plea for something closer to Niles wasn’t meant to have something PUT in Niles… its a plea to try to put things closer to this side of town…

remember… there uses to be a gas station on Mowry by the Comcast office… Vienna Bakery was in the strip mall there was the Italian restaurant… the closest shopping now is at Paseo Padre and Mowry…. for gas we have to go to Union City..

I’d prefer to spend my money in Fremont but there are Target and Costco stores and restaurants in Union City and Newark that are way more convenient than driving across town

Now look at the area around Third and King streets in San Francisco, an area that used to be horrible and unsafe just ten or fifteen years ago… few people would dare go there at night. Now, there’s an amazing stadium and tons of popular nightlife.

SOMA was ramping up long before the stadium was built. As much a result of dot-com businesses scrambling for commercial office space as other factors.

Loads of techie organizations were taking up office space in the area as commercial real-estate availability in other parts of the Bay Area made this (historically) less-than-desireable neighborhood a not-so-bad deal by comparison.

A lot of work by the city on infrastructure improvements, various retail services, residential condos, and the stadium (voter approved 1996, groundbreaking 1997) all followed the resulting critical mass of businesses, employees, and increasing numbers of residents.

What are the motives of these naysayers? As you know over 60 new major league facilities have been built since 1991. These sports facilities have no doubt benefited their communities. Improved quality of life benefits are a given. A recent Feng and Humphrey study concludes that sports facilities have a “significant positive effect on the value of surrounding houses”. ..why would anyone be opposed to Fremont becoming a “major league” city. Yes, the ballpark is important for all reasonable people!

The proof, look at the area around the Oakland Colisium
or Overstock Stadium and of course the Oracle arena. Two major sport franchises.
Just google the area around the Overstock Stadium, Fremont could have had that. Yes Charlie C, There is plenty of Proof.

When are folks going to give it a rest on the ballpark! Just be glad that Fremont only spent a few $100k’s vs the $27M and growing that San Jose has spent. Fremont officials never even had a realistic estimate on how much it would have cost to buy property to build a park. San Francisco is a tourist destination and that is one reason the ball park did not impacted city spending as significantly when AT&T park wasn’t selling out. If they come to Fremont, they would exit the park, head for the freeway with $’s still in their pockets just like folks do today in Oakland. Ask Cleveland how tickets sales are this year even with a good season under way. By the way, SF is working hard to bring real jobs to their city….Twitter is a prime example. Why not focus on bringing more tech jobs to Fremont and let San Jose waste their money on the A’s while laying off city workers and police officers!

“….residential property values in the city of Dallas increased following the
announcement of a possible new stadium in the city of Dallas. At the same time, property val-
ues fell throughout the rest of Dallas County, which would have paid for the proposed stadium.
These patterns reversed when the Dallas stadium proposal was abandoned.”

(A hedonic model of prices is one that decomposes the price of an item into separate components that determine the price)

“We use a spatial hedonic approach to assess the impact of two professional sports facilities, Nationwide Arena, home of the Blue Jackets of the NHL, and Crew Stadium, home of the Columbus Crew of MLS, in Columbus Ohio, on surrounding residential property values.” …. “In dollar values the average increase in house value is $2,214 per house and the total increased house value associated with a 10% decrease in distance to Nationwide Arena”

The consensus continues to be that the gains in residential values which occur in the immediate vicinity of the stadium (and which Charlie makes reference to) are likely offset by losses in property values in the area outside of the immediate stadium vicinity, such that the net change is neutral. This outlaying area incurs the negative impact of the stadium (traffic, noise, tax burden,e tc) but incurs few of the advantages.

“We find that residential property values in the city of Dallas increased following the announcement of a possible new stadium in the city of Dallas. At the same time, property values fell throughout the rest of Dallas County, which would have paid for the proposed stadium.
These patterns reversed when the Dallas stadium proposal was abandoned.”

Gus, I found the link. It looks like a company that makes studies for special interst groups, they have a study on all types of subjects.
I read the report it does not seem to apply to Fremont, but makes a really good case for San Jose.

Why have over 60 new major league sports facilities been built since 1991? Are you naysayers saying ALL these new major league facilities were a bad idea? Are you saying these communities ALL got screwed? Then I guess you REALLY believe you saved Fremont by killing major league baseball. Is it more important to have a city that people drive through instead of come to? Really? Then you must be resigned to MORE nail salons, MORE tapioca bars and MORE asian buffets? We might as well build MORE Cricket fields for the poor, poor Cisco/Intel engineers who earn a handsome six figure salary with tax payer money! Really?
Again, the baseball stadium is the ONLY way Fremont will ever get the higher end stores and restaurants built here … reasonable people know that.

#23…Yours is the opinion of a certifiable stooge.
Why are more than 50 of North America’s metropolitan regions hosting at least one of 134 big league franchises and paying the price? It can NOT be argued that big league franchises generate economic growth, are a boons for job growth, revitalize declining central business districts and bring many positive intangible benefits, such as civic pride, as well as high-profile national and international publicity. Local area charities like hospitals and schools benefit. Professional athletes generate great interest and raise money for many civic causes. Get it?

To quote the Chronicle’s Pop Critic, Aidian Vaziri:
It was massive. It was relentless. And, above all else, it was heartbreaking. But enough about the gnarly traffic jam outside Oakland’s Overstock.com Coliseum on Tuesday, which turned a typically easy commute to the ballpark into a panic-laced three-hour ordeal dotted with beaming red lights and a robust chorus of car horns